Tags: Brazilian

Review: The crate-diggers behind the Mr Bongo label can usually be relied upon to showcase some seriously good tunes old and new. That's certainly the case on this third volume in their occasional "Record Club" series of compilations. Spanning sunshine soul, obscure samba, spacey jazz-funk experimentation, wide-eyed underground disco, fiery funk, weirdo rock, cheery South African bubblegum, synth-laden early '80s highlife, Ramsay Lewis style workouts and the psychedelic Middle Eastern disco-funk of Elias Rahbani, the compilation's 20 tracks are not only near faultless, but genuinely surprising and eye-opening. To quote a cliche, this collection genuinely is all killer and no filler.

Review: Inspired by his own experiences growing up in apartheid-era South Africa and his travels through music, Esa Williams has put together a compilation of contemporary electronic music from around the world. "Amandla: Music To The People" is well worth your attention and contains some genuine gems. Highlights come thick and fast throughout, from the percussive, chant-along sweatiness of Penny Penny's "Shilungu" and the loved-up, pitched-down dreaminess of Alaska's "Accuse (Instrumental)", to the sweet, life-affirming cheeriness of Os Panteras' "Melo Do Anjo (Outro Edit)" and the thrusting, Italo-disco style dancefloor masculinity of Masalo's "Yera". Esa's own late '80s style pitched-down South African house jam "Pantsula Traxx" is also superb.

Review: Since launching in 2016, Mr Bongo's Record Club compilation series has provided three essential volumes of personal favourites - many obscure and hard-to-find - selected by the label's in-house team of crate-digging DJs. Volume four is naturally every bit as essential as its' predecessors, offering an enticing mixture of Brazilian, African, soul, funk and disco with not a suspect selection in sight. This time round, they've chosen to include contemporary music as well as dusty old gems, with highlights including Kenny Dope's delicious rework of the soul-jazz positivity of 'Throwing Stones' by James Reese and the Progressions, the fast version of Ze Roberto's 1973 MPB classic 'Lotus 72D' and the samba-folk wonder that is Matthew Tavares' 2019 gem 'Self Portrait'.